Hundreds apply for handful of Glendale police jobs

Applicants line up outside of Glendale Police Department on Wednesday, June 15, 2011.

Cheryl A. Guerrero/Staff photographer

Cheryl A. Guerrero/Staff photographer

Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com

The prospect of being a successful candidate out of hundreds of applicants vying for a few positions at the Glendale Police Department didn’t deter Enrico Di Napoli.

The 22-year-old La Verne resident has already applied to the Burbank Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And on Wednesday, Di Napoli submitted his application to Glendale police.

Di Napoli, a special-education assistant, has been searching for police jobs throughout the state for the past year.

“There were a few months where there was not one department in the state hiring recruits,” Di Napoli said.

While finding a job during the continuing economic slump could be discouraging for some police hopefuls, Di Napoli said he has not been deterred.

“It just motivates me to think ‘I need to work harder,’ because there are a lot of people trying to get these jobs,” he said.

Di Napoli was one of hundreds of police hopefuls who turned in applications with the department over a three-day period.

If city officials allow police managers to hire, they plan to add at least seven officers, officials said. That number could bump up after several officers retire in the next year.

The City Council is slated to decide later this month whether to lift an ongoing hiring freeze for the department, which was put in place citywide to balance a budget deficit.

Still, the Police Department decided to begin recruiting early because the hiring process is lengthy.

Police officials opted this year to revamp their application process after Santa Monica and Burbank police departments received more than 1,200 applications, said Russ Quan, human resource analyst for the department.

The department asked applicants to pick up and turn in the forms in person, and on certain days to ensure local, serious candidates were applying, officials said. The process also limits the number of applications received, including those from other states and counties.

About 850 people picked up police applications, he said, and of those, about 400 had been turned in as of Monday.